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LECTURE VII.

From all sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion; from all false doctrine, heresy, and schism; from hardness of heart, and contempt of thy word and commandment,

Good Lord, deliver us.

THIS petition divides itself into three parts. First, we pray to be delivered from "all sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion ;" and well we may, for, if the horrors of war are great, the horrors of civil war, which is the fruit of the evils here deprecated, are even greater. The whole family of mankind are brethren, and it is appalling to behold them hurrying one another into eternity, even when the contention is a righteous one, for the defence of the land of our forefathers, our liberty, our religion, and our laws; but, in civil war, brethren by birth, as well as by nature, they who were nourished by the same breast, and fostered under the same paternal roof, forget the ties of kindred, and imbrue their hands in each other's blood. Yes, however threatening the aspect of the times, we will still hope and pray to be delivered from all such horrors as these. England has witnessed such scenes. Oh! may she not stand convicted of ingratitude to

heaven for all its countless blessings, by being again the victim of her children's unholy feuds! From all sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion, and from all their train of attendant ills, good Lord, deliver us!

We then pray to be delivered "from all false doctrine, heresy, and schism." How far more Christian is it to pray God to deliver us from these evils, than, as is the practice of a sister church, to usurp his prerogative, to "deal damnation round the land," and attempt, by the fire and sword of persecution, to deliver ourselves! It is no disparagement to the purity and excellence of our Church, that "false doctrine, heresy, and schism," exist and abound. If the preaching of an inspired Paul was unable to preserve the unity of the Church in his days, (which we find from his epistles to have been the case, for there were many dissenters even at that early period,) still less is the uninspired ministry of the Church of England equal to that object, however learned, and zealous, and faithful her preachers, however pure her doctrines, however apostolic her character. She prays to be delivered from heresy and schism, because they are calculated to engender strife, and because she devoutly believes her doctrines to be the uncorrupted and saving truth as it is in Jesus. At the same time, to all who, however erroneously, dissent from those doctrines, or from her simple and sober form of worship, in Christian sincerity and faithfulness,

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not "using their liberty for a cloak of licentiousness," she holds out the right hand of fellowship; rejoicing, if by any means, preserving the more essential and fundamental truths of the Gospel, the borders of Christ's Church upon earth are enlarged; "Christ is preached, and therein do we rejoice, yea, and will rejoice*.' Would that her peacefulness and good-will were returned to her in the love and affection of all! Would that her maternal solicitude could conciliate respect at least for her venerable antiquity-respect for the distinguished part which she took in gradually rescuing these realms from the moral thraldom, the far worse than African slavery, of popery, in the fruit of which exertions dissenters are participating in common with ourselves,-respect for her as the Church of their forefathers, through a long series of generations, respect for her sincerity, even if they commiserated her alleged errors. But, unhappily, though there are many amiable and excellent exceptions, modern dissenters, as a body,—I say modern dissenters, for it did not use to be so,— appear to be actuated by no other feeling than one of hostility to the Establishment. Too many appear to dissent, not upon the Christian ground of conscience, but upon the unhallowed ground of hatred, "preaching Christ even of envy, and strife, and contention, not sincerity." The excellences of the Church they carefully keep out of sight, her + Phil. i. 15, 16.

* Phil. i. 18.

smallest defect, or shadow of defect, or erroneously supposed defect, they appear to take an unnatural delight in holding up to public scorn. The Church, though she will not relax one iota of her doctrines, because she knows them to be true, if the Holy Scriptures upon which they are built be true, knows that her institutions, the machinery employed for the propagation of those doctrines, however admirable they be, are not perfect, because they are human; these, therefore, she is prepared and anxious to alter in any way that may appear to her better calculated to effect her high and holy purposes. But she will not, like that "profane person" of old, sell her birth-right for any temporary advantage to herself. She will not peril her existence, as a national Church, by making the smallest sacrifice, whether of doctrine, of forms, or of lawful property, for the mere sake of passing popularity. Oh! that the time may soon arrive, the time of refreshing from above, when the savage cry of "Down with her, down with her, even to the ground!" shall be heard no more, when "the Lord shall give strength unto his people, and give unto his people the blessing of peace*;" when many who now think, like Saul, that they are doing God service by vexing the Church, shall become, like him, her defenders and champions; when many who are now her enemies shall combine with her in the work of labour and love, to render her, what

*Psalm xxix. 10.

she herself, above all others, desires, as much more conducive as possible to the glory of God, and the salvation of men; shall combine with her in praying, "Do thou good in thy good pleasure unto Zion, build thou the walls of Jerusalem *." In the mean time, we will ourselves fly unto Thee, our rock and our fortress, our ever present help in time of need, and pray, with thy holy and accepted servant of old, "Hear the prayers of thy servants, and their supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon the sanctuary that is desolate†;" apart from all bitterness and resentment, in anxiety, but not in despair, sorrowing, but not as men who are without hope, we will continue to pray, "from all false doctrine, heresy, and schism, good Lord, deliver us !"

We then pray to be delivered "from hardness of heart, and contempt of God's word and commandment." The hardness of heart which produces contempt of God's word and commandment is caused, be it ever borne in mind, not all at once, but by a gradual abandonment of Christian principle. The beginning of strife, said the wise man of old, is as the letting out of water; and the same might be said of the beginning of sin. Every time we yield to temptation, we increase the enemy's strength, and our own weakness. This is the system of warfare which he has practised upon us through all time. Thus David was led on from + Daniel ix. 17.

* Psalm Li. 18.

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